Infographics are graphics that display information in an easy-to-understand way. Doing this enables viewers to digest a large amount of facts and figures more quickly and easily than if they were written in black and white.

Their popularity is down to the aesthetic and expressive way in which they are displayed. This was originally done with bars and lines, but designs these days can be extravagant including icons and pictograms which make content more appealing and eye-catching.

It’s for this reason that the infographic can be a favourable method of creating CVs. And with the current state of the jobs market, having a curriculum vitae that stands out from the crowd is extremely valuable.

However, when it comes to your CV, there are a few things to bear in mind before you decide on an infographic.

The job application
Suitable industries to target with an infographic CV are the creative ones, such as graphic design and animation. This way, you can show off both your acumen for the job, such as your qualifications and experience, as well as your creative design skills, whereas a standard written CV would restrict you to the former.

Competition is fierce for any job at the moment, but it is particularly so for creative positions. This means that examples of your work will be more likely to entice potential employers, rather than dissuade them.

An infographic CV excels here because it acts as a piece of work, either as a stand-alone example or even integrated into a portfolio.

However, other fields such as finance and medicine might be less receptive to such an exuberant CV. After all, your creativity isn’t really what a potential employer is looking for. They will more than likely be interested in your qualifications and experience, in which case a standard CV may be more advantageous.

Overshadowing your CVs content
Your CV needs to stand out and grab attention for the right reasons. When created successfully, an infographic CV does this by carefully balancing the emphasis between design and the content within that design, so that they complement each other.

On the other hand, if you try to be too flashy and go for an all-singing, all-dancing infographic CV, you could end up taking the focus away from the content, making it harder to understand and leaving the reader nonplussed.

Similarly, if you’re applying for a position that sets criteria slightly above your qualifications or experience (and we’ve all applied for such posts), it’s easy to grasp at anything that might just sway a potential employer. In these instances, it’s advisable to avoid using an infographic as a pretty design that’s intended to mask any inadequacies.

Versatility
Before you jump into designing an infographic CV, consider how you’ll be applying for positions once it’s finished. If you send printed CVs through the post or present them in person, an infographic is ideal because you can design and print at home.

Applying online, however, might throw up a few problems with restrictions on what you can upload in an application such as PDF or Microsoft Word files.
The former shouldn’t be an issue; any software you use to design your infographic CV should export your finished document as a PDF.

Working with Word, on the other hand, can cause problems because the software isn’t intended for image-heavy layouts. This can result in changes in appearance when viewed by the potential employer. The alternative is to have a Word version of your CV, as well as an infographic CV that you can use when it’s appropriate.

As you can see, infographic CVs can be a great way to distinguish yourself in a crowded market and they’re quite simple to create: there are some programs specifically tailored to designing them and desktop publishers enable it too.

But before you dive into the world of infographic CVs, ask yourself whether they’re the best option for the positions for which you’re applying.

Infographics are some of the most powerful SEO tools in the social media world. These graphics are visual representations of information or data. Using infographics has become a new way of sharing information on the Internet. Instead of writing a blog post or an article that includes lots of percentages and stats, you can create an information graphic that ties it all together in a visually appealing image. This way you can express complex messages to readers in a way that enhances their comprehension.

Increasingly more webmasters are using infographics for link building and SEO. Adding images to your posts makes them more interesting and appealing to readers. Search engines love multi-media stuff. Statistics show that infographics are up to 40 times more likely to be viewed and shared on social media sites compared to text. They are easy to add to websites and they boil down the most important elements of complicated stories.

A well designed infographic that offers fresh information and appeals to the interests of your audience will always be successful at building quality backlinks. One of the biggest benefits of using information graphics as part of your link building campaign is that the links you will get tend to be from relevant websites. Some of the most popular types of infographics are data visualizations, viral visualizations, iconic visualizations, and business insights.

Many infographics fail because their design is low quality or their topic is poor. An engaging topic combined with a visually appealing design can make the difference between high quality backlinks and a wasted investment. If you create compelling graphics, a highly authoritative website will use the embeddable HTML code to share your work withy its readers. You should also consider adding your images to popular infographic depositories, so that others can see them.

Studies indicate that over 60 percent of people are visual learners. Internet users are generally looking at information graphics on lunch breaks or whenever they have some free time. Most of them don’t have time to read long articles. If you want to get the most out of this link building technique, create infographics that are attractive, informative, relevant, and easy to share.

Marketing is essential to maximize the exposure of your images. If you are getting information from external sources, let the owner of the dataset know about your intention. He might be interested in any tool created using his data. If you are using independent contractors to create infographics for your site, ask them to feature your design on their websites or in their portfolios. Make sure your infographic has a Facebook like button, a Twitter button, and social network share buttons for Pinterest and Reddit.

This is nothing new. You’ve heard it before. A picture is worth a thousand words. When you think about, humans have been communicating with pictures for thousands of years in the form of pictograms on cave walls to Egyptian hieroglyphics to temple carvings. As marketers, we should be using visual information in our business on a regular basis.

People remember pictures better than words, especially over long periods of time. This phenomenon is referred to as the Picture Superiority Effect. Based on research into the Picture Superiority Effect, when we read text along, we are likely to remember only 10% of the information 3 days later. However, if the same information is presented to us as text together with relevant images, we are likely to remember 65% of that information 3 days later.

According to developmental molecular biologist John Medina, visual information is a more effective form of communication for humans. In his book, Brain Rules, he states “Vision is by far our most dominant sense, taking up half of our brain’s resources.” Armed with those facts and figures, as a business owner or marketing executive, you have an opportunity to get out in front of prospects and ahead of your competition by creating engaging visuals to use within your business.

Derived from the phrase information graphics, Infographic was a term used in the production of graphics for newspapers and magazines. Today, infographic has evolved to mean something entirely different. They are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present complex information quickly and clearly.

Understanding the importance of infographics as a business tool, I have started to use more of them in my social media posts. A Facebook post with a graphic or video is more likely to be shared that a text post. Create your own or share others that are relevant to your business or target audience.

The good news is that you don’t need to be a graphic designer to create your own static ‘banner’ infographics. I call these static banner infographics to differentiate between the smaller size graphics seen on Facebook and the ‘tall’ longer poster size infographics.

Here are a few ideas to help you develop your own static infographics.

1. Start by deciding what information you wish to convey. Go through your existing company brochures, white papers, articles or blogs. Pull one or two sentences, quotes or comments that are engaging and/or informative. I like to look for things that can also have a visual play on words.

2. Research for relevant royalty free images on stock photography sites such as 123RF.com, istockphotography.com, dreamstime.com or Gettyimages.com. If you plans are to use your infographics on the web only, then you only need to purchase images that are 72dpi.

3. Overlay the text over the image and save as a jpg.

4. For those who are creatively challenged or simply time-strapped like me, outsource your infographics to a freelancer at Fiverr.com, Elance.com or oDesk.com [Recently the latter two companies have merged as one company, but they still operate independently]. You can easily have a series of static infographics produced within a weeks’ time.

5. If you are really adventurous and want to try this on your own, check out Piktochart to get a head start with inforgraphic designs.

Adding infographics as a part of your marketing strategy is easy to execute. Make them interesting, fun, relevant and engaging. Notice which type and style of images are getting the most attention and then do more of them.